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DPP# 162 "Price increases? Better sell that Metallica"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·32m 46s·analyzed·Dec 4, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Stern price increases unsustainable; Metallica LE flipping at $18k; D&D struggling; Spooky Evil Dead nearly sold out.

Summary

Don discusses Stern's anticipated January price increases (predicting LE prices reaching $13,600), criticizes the unsustainability of premium pricing, analyzes secondary market trends for Metallica LEs selling around $17,000-$18,000, questions D&D's market performance, reports 215 Evil Dead units remaining at Spooky, and speculates on upcoming remasters (Tron, Ghostbusters) while contrasting Stern's mass-production model with Spooky's boutique approach.

Key Claims

  • Stern is planning a price increase in January, with LE prices potentially reaching $13,600

    medium confidence · Don received invoice information from Mad Pinball distributor and uses 'Nostradamus' predictive framing; not official confirmation but sourced from industry contact

  • Metallica LE is trading on secondary market for $17,000-$18,000 despite $12,999 MSRP

    high confidence · Don reports direct market observation: 'People have been talking about making deals for around $18,000 for these Metallica LEs. And like all day, if I had one of these, it would be out the door at 18.'

  • D&D is not a sales juggernaut and underperforming expectations

    medium confidence · Don states 'Not a sales juggernaut. Not a sales juggernaut. What's going on with this game?' but provides no specific sales figures

  • Evil Dead has sold approximately 673 units with 215 remaining available

    high confidence · Don observed the pre-order system showing 215 available units and calculated: '215 left means they've sold 673 either directly through the website or through distributors'

  • Tron remaster is rumored to be next after Metallica

    medium confidence · Don reports: 'I've heard Tron's next now. There's Whispers that are out there and the Blagosphere' but acknowledges it as speculation and rumor

  • Jurassic Park Home Edition was clearance priced at $3,700 at Costco

    high confidence · Don reports leaked photo: 'This photo leaked out of a Costco of the Jurassic Park Home Edition on its clearance price of $3,700'

  • Stern's business model requires selling 1,500+ units to break even; Spooky needs only ~450 units

    medium confidence · Don compares: 'Stern Pinball, they release a game, they sell 1,500 of them overnight, and that's like a failure to them' vs 'if they would have sold 450 Evil Deads, they would have been high-fiving'

Notable Quotes

  • “I asked Nostradamus, what's going on with these certain price increases? And he came back with a figure, a five-figured figure for the new price of LEs. It was $13,600, and then he disappeared into a whiff of smoke.”

    Don @ ~5:30 — Establishes the $13,600 LE price prediction as the episode's central claim; uses comedic framing to indicate speculation

  • “what i would not be at that figure is a buyer i'm sorry um you know i love the lex men that i got behind me but i'm looking at prices man”

    Don @ ~8:00 — Direct statement of Don's resistance to $13,600 pricing; personal buying threshold crossed

  • “If you can get northwards of $17,000 on a brand new Metallica LE that you bought for $12,999 $99 or $12.5 if you've got a sweetheart deal. Turn and burn that thing, man.”

    Don @ ~25:00 — Explicit advice to flip Metallica LEs; acknowledges $4,000+ profit opportunity

  • “What's going on with this game? I want to like it... Not a sales juggernaut. Not a sales juggernaut.”

    Don @ ~45:00 — Candid assessment of D&D's market underperformance despite designer pedigree

  • “With whatever they've sold now, I'm sure they're happy with it... these guys are probably waking up every morning like, all right, it's time to now pull this off. Let's get these games into production.”

    Don @ ~65:00 — Contrasts Stern/Spooky business models and production timelines; highlights Spooky's joy at ~670 unit sales

  • “Stern Pinball, they release a game, they sell 1,500 of them overnight, and that's like a failure to them... Spooky Pinball turned around... if they would have sold 450 Evil Deads, they would have been high-fiving”

    Don @ ~60:00 — Core business model comparison showing structural differences between manufacturers

Entities

DonpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyMad PinballcompanyMetallica (Stern)gameDungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's EyegameEvil DeadgameJack Dangerperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Three-tier pricing model with LE prices at $13,600+ perceived as unsustainable; potential for demand collapse similar to Venom/John Wick patterns

    high · Don explicitly states: 'I don't see sales success at 13.6 for LEs' and references inventory pile-up at Jersey Jack

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball's transparency, fan engagement, and post-purchase service support contrasted favorably against Stern's corporate scale model

    medium · Don: 'these guys... are trying their hardest to make that and also be transparent and also help support their games with service after purchase. It's kind of like everything we would want'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception of Evil Dead's preliminary code and theme; Don personally committed despite high pre-order commitment; notes game captures Evil Dead aesthetic better than expected

    high · Don: 'I love the game for the price I've already played it... I want this game tomorrow' and praises Ash callouts vs. Texas Chainsaw Massacre tone

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spooky Pinball successfully achieving production goals with ~673 Evil Dead sales; fundamentally different business model (450-unit success threshold vs. Stern's 1,500+ requirement)

    high · Don calculates: '215 left means they've sold 673 either directly through the website or through distributors' and contracts this to Stern's scaling requirements

  • ?

    design_philosophy: D&D missing in-game currency redemption system; lack of reward mechanic for level-up progression criticized compared to Mandalorian (Beskar) and Jaws (shark teeth) implementations

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.098

0:00
Hey there, listener. Somehow, out of all of the pinball podcasts out there, you've stumbled here on one of the more frequent and forward-facing pinball exuberant celebrations on the internet, Spotify, or beyond. So let's get into this, just like that sequel to Taxi starring Madonna that all the documents just blew up all over the internet there. We're going to talk not about that, but about some more things that are going on within the pinball arena. I don't know what you call it. Hit the drop. By my count, we're at episode 162 of Don's Pinball Podcast. Gather around, everybody. Bring it in. Let's just go and talk rap prosthetic about the pinball and the pinball industry and such. I want to do a recording today because I'm filling a damn void that has shown up. It's been a week since I've dropped an episode. There's some WAP that's in there. Waiting on the pinball show because I need to know the market trends. I want to know what's on the line. And then, boom, it dropped right in my DMs or my distributor, Mad Pinball. I got a brand spanking new invoice for Metallica. Excited about that. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about buying games now before the price increases in January. What's going on? Is D&D DOA? How about that? Also, there's 250 Evil Deads left. Let's get into this. So the word that's been permeating the ether sphere and ether space is that the price increase that has been put off for the last year or so from Stern Pinball is apparently coming in January.
1:35
Terrible idea, man. Come on, come on. We know prices are already outrageous, and with inflation outpacing it, if they keep the price the same as they've done for the last year, year and a half, two years, it's like with inflation, it's like the price, we're finally catching up to it now, and then they're about to yeet a field goal another 50 yards down there and bump these prices up. I haven't heard where they're going to land, but I always go back to my oracle inside, Nostradamus. He seems to know all. The way this works is I ask Nostradamus a question, and then he permeates his mind there for a bit. He sips on some chai tea, has a slice of pizza, and then he's able to put out probably what's going to happen by using a mixture of Eastern mysticism and also looking at what would make the most sense. And by that I mean, what outcome could he bestow upon us where we'd be like, okay, yeah, I guess I'm not surprised at that. And that's probably what's going to happen. So I asked Nostradamus, what's going on with these certain price increases? And he came back with a figure, a five-figured figure for the new price of LEs. It was $13,600, and then he disappeared into a whiff of smoke. And so when I heard that, I was like, Nostradamus, are you serious? and then I pondered to myself and I said self I wouldn't be surprised at that I would be surprised at an LE prices of fourteen thousand dollars um I guess I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they maintained at least for the first part of the year but if they turned and burned on the next turn cornerstone release thirteen thousand six hundred dollars for the next thousand run nine hundred run whatever they're going to do Nostradamus wasn't clear on that um I guess I wouldn't be surprised at that figure what i would not be at that figure is a buyer i'm sorry um you know i love the lex men that i got behind me but i'm looking at prices man and new in the box 11 5 right now we're not even what are we like two three months after release of this banger game this is a jack dangers game man this is like the the spiritual follow-up to foo fighters it's got crazy ball pass it's got more wire forms you know it's got you know concepts of a story right that are beginning. I can see where they're going to take the code. Nostradamus had bestowed upon me some ethereal wisdom about how the fact that as you do modes in X-Men and you unlock the characters, you save them from death. When you go into the future, they're going to play different attributes based on which ones you're taking into the future with you. And wouldn't that be awesome if the future mode in this game actually had something interesting to do? That would not surprise me if that's where it ends up. Wason, I know you're on it. So that's what I'm expecting. that's what I want to see.
Brian Eddy
person
Dwight Sullivanperson
Bowen Kerinsperson
Jurassic Park Home Editiongame
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
X-Mengame
Venomgame
Jawsgame
Tron (remaster rumor)game
Ghostbusters (remaster speculation)game
John Wickgame
Pulp Fictiongame
1UP Lounge (Bellingham, Washington)venue

high · Don: 'If we can get that into Dungeons & Dragons, I think that would save the game. Who is this game for?' References successful precedent in other Brian Eddy/Stern titles

  • $

    market_signal: Jurassic Park Home Edition clearance priced at $3,700 at select Costco locations; limited geographic distribution suggests targeted test or liquidation

    high · Leaked photo of Costco clearance; Don confirms checking multiple warehouses and finding distribution concentrated in higher-performing Costcos

  • $

    market_signal: Stern planning January price increase; LEs predicted to reach $13,600, substantially above current $12,999 baseline

    medium · Invoice from Mad Pinball distributor; 'Nostradamus' prediction; Don's industry contact assessment that $13,600 would not surprise him

  • ?

    announcement: Evil Dead by Spooky entering production end of month; $450 shotgun modification available

    high · Don confirms: 'Evil Dead is supposed to enter production at the end of this month' based on industry contact information

  • ?

    product_strategy: D&D underperforming as sales juggernaut despite designer pedigree (Brian Eddy/Dwight Sullivan); community perception of game as operator-focused vs. home-player friendly

    medium · Don: 'Not a sales juggernaut. Not a sales juggernaut.' No specific sales figures provided but framed as notable underperformance

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Tron remaster rumored as next Stern release following Metallica; mixed community reception

    medium · Don reports: 'I've heard Tron's next now. There's Whispers that are out there' and recounts vendor criticism of concept

  • $

    market_signal: Metallica LEs trading at $17,000-$18,000 despite $12,999 MSRP; represents $4,000-$5,000+ profit opportunity

    high · Don reports direct market observation of trading activity; advises flipping strategy

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern implementing remaster pipeline (Metallica, Tron, Ghostbusters rumored) with frequency of one remaster per year alongside three cornerstone releases

    medium · Don speculates: 'People are talking about remasters coming once a year now, so three cornerstones plus a remaster. I can dig it. I think they've got five years of remasters in the chamber'

    • 4:23
    But for 11.5 now, three months out, it's kind of been like this, but never like this, like this. So when I look back at the last few releases, Venom, come on, 9K all day for an LE. The only game that seems to be holding its value, again, Mr. Elwin's games, particularly the ones with the banger themes and the banger layouts. Sorry, Avengers, I know you're $11,000 for your LE with your yellow powder coat and everything. and like I like you but I don't love you but my god man Jaws a game which for me is a Godzilla killer just because of the theme carries it over I think Godzilla has better layout a little better code and gameplay Jaws is just the whole better package so it just ekes out there above but I wouldn't hate you for saying that Godzilla is better number one and number two clearly Jaws LE still $13,000 with that white powder coated armor so fun to touch and it comes with the shooter rod i thought we were really on a nice value trend there with stern when they dangled the shooter rod attached to the le and then they pulled it away from us just pulled it away but then they gave us some expression lights with metallica so i can't be that bad i can't be that mad but i'm telling you we get to january second week of january and they're like here it is brian at these dungeons and dragons check it out log in pick your class and then uh you know play around There's a fast lock in there, probably. There's points to gain, and you go up in levels, maybe unlock some gear or something. Maybe that will carry over game to game with your character as you go through. And then maybe you can play each of the four different classes, and then there could be an ultimate wizard mode if you happen to beat the game four different times with each of the different classes. Your white-made druid can go ahead and blow up the scores or something. So if you tell me that that game, as cool as a concept as that sounds And as fun as that sounds to play, it's $13,600. And I got Venom in my rearview mirror. I just don't know. I don't think even I would jump at that at an LE. And I'm usually a premium buyer, but even then, even then. And so, Don, you say, what about those folks that are telling me, now, you know, there's no used market without a new in-box market. I say, of course not. Of course. Yeah, if no one's buying these new in-box games, they're going to sit in distributors. and then they'll be sold. They just won't be sold at MSRP, right? We see that happening right now with, look at Jersey Jack's backlog of games. Godfather, Toy Story 4, Guns and Freaking Roses. Phenomenal games all. I enjoy all of them. That is not enough to own them at their MSRP price. And in the case of Godfather, not even worth the $2,500 discount. But the exuberance for the games are there, but their prices have come down. I think we would see exactly the same thing happen with unsold new in-box games going forward if they're trying to turn and burn these things at $13,600 plus shipping and taxes. Who's with me? Nostradamus is predicting. So I don't know. I don't like this. What would happen to premiums? $10,500 at least? $10,750? God, pros for just flirting with $8,000? Get all the way up out of here. I want to do a little bit of an in defense of Venom because I did enjoy the game I kind of met it where it was at I also wasn't in on an LE I came in at a premium and so I think for this bonus episode that I'll do for this I haven't done a how did I get it, what happened to it episode in a while so I think I'll drop that on Patreon because I got some comments about Venom and how I think it can be appreciated in a proper way I don't think it deserves all the hate that it's got but as a product for $13,000 feel free to hate away and again that pro is an embarrassment the pro is an embarrassment but we get to that I do that on the bonus show I do that on the bonus show So I guess of course Stern would want to show that they bringing more income more margins and everything. I'm sure they're looking at a price increase. Disney does a price increase two times a year. I'm sure Stern is looking at that. And isn't there a Disney guy working at Stern now too? But I just don't know, man. I don't see sales success at 13.6 for LEs. Tell me what you think. about that. Let me go to my notes. What else are we going to talk about? There's so much going on. There's so much going on. This photo leaked out of a Costco of the Jurassic Park Home Edition on its clearance price of $3,700. That's a deal all day. Though, I think for that price, you could still probably find Led Zeppelin Pro, which would be like a fully featured Cornerstone Pro. But yeah, I wonder how this is all going to shake out. Now these games were purchased by Costco This wasn't Stern putting games out there Seeing if they would sell Stern negotiated with Costco, Costco made a purchase They bought all their units I don't know what the details of the contracts and everything are Like if we don't sell this many you have to buy these back Or whatever But I'm wondering how the penetrance was For those games CN1 right now, four weeks before Christmas For $3,700 Tells me one of two things Either they tried it, it wasn't working And they're just liquidating these things or they tried it, it was pretty successful, and maybe the $3,700 is just for that floor model that's been played for the last six to eight weeks, and they're clearing out their inventory because they all sold. That very well could be as well. I don't know if Stern will ever release figures or anything. The way we will know if this was successful, though, will be next year when a new Star Wars Remastered Home Edition gets released with Insider Connected, and that is one that even I would be interested in, even though those home version games are a little bit smaller. It'll be going up head-to-head with Alice's Adventures Through Wonderland, or what's that Wonderland company calling their new game? Their sub-thousand-dollar game that they want to come out with. But that was interesting. I knew the price would come down. I was thinking it would land somewhere like $42.97 with an asterisk on it. But $3,700, man, that's price to move. Now, that's not across the board. Shoot, these games aren't even at Costco's across the board. I think they targeted higher-performing, higher-margined Costcos, and those are the warehouses that actually got these machines. All of my local warehouses in the Madison, Wisconsin area have not seen one of these Jurassic Park machines. Correct me if I'm wrong, but peeking in them, I didn't see any. The Rockford, Illinois Costco did have it. I think I popped into three different Costcos one day on a trip to Chicago. I only saw them at one. It was that Rockford one. When I went to the one that's right by Interium there at the Woodfield Mall, nary one could be seen and that's just a hop stick and a nudge bump away from stern's own headquarters right so interesting interesting that it's out there that's going to be somebody's cool ass birthday present some cool dad out there is going to win christmas by bringing his pinball naive family a jurassic park home edition and uh they're going to go nuts with it they're going to go nuts with it i guess it's it's good that the uh like glass doesn't lift off or anything you You can somehow free the balls up without actually opening the glass. Or it's sealed somehow so balls can't get lost. So when you unfold the game, they're already in there and ready to go. Kind of cool. I like that they did this. I like that I'm pinball savvy enough to know that if I really wanted a game for that $3,500 to $4,500 price point, I could probably find a more fully featured game. But for the general public, man, more pinball, more fun, grow the hobby, get more people in there. I love it. The more money that's in the industry as a whole is going to be good for our little microcosm of an economy and will spurn further production. So I ain't mad at you. Plus, I got to play pinball when I went to Costco this year. That was super fun. I want to see it continue. I think Star Wars Home Edition would be the next logical step for that to go. I'm using electronic notes here, so I've got to refer back to my phone. Metallica SLE. I must have been drunk when I wrote this. There's no Metallica SLE that I've heard about. I've been hearing all about the Metallica Limited Editions, though, particularly the price tag. This I was not expecting. I don't know that I was necessarily expecting the LEs to sell out as quickly as they did. That was surprising. But, like, the persistence of demand for this game is unreal right now, especially with what we've been seeing over the last year and a half with pinball prices, with inflations, buy super high, sell super low, deals everywhere. It's like everybody's getting divorced at the same time. It just has to liquidate or something. So I've been seeing this game. People have been talking about making deals for around $18,000 for these Metallica LEs. And like all day, if I had one of these, it would be out the door at 18. Forget it. There's no way I'm keeping it. If those prices are still going, I think they're starting to soften now. But if you can get northwards of $17,000 on a brand new Metallica LE that you bought for $12,999 $99 or $12.5 if you've got a sweetheart deal. Turn and burn that thing, man. The game's cool, man. The art looks great. The game plays well. It already comes loaded with the lights, so it saves you that hassle. There's Invisiglass and a shaker motor. It's plug and play, ready to go. I get it. The game's phenomenal. But it's not phenomenal like leave $5,000 on the table phenomenal. I mean, come on. Turn and burn that thing to somebody else. Make their day. Take that money. go get yourself a premium man they're running off the line they're unlimited they're going to make them forever you could always get one there's going to be plenty right and even if you spent the 96.99 msrp for this thing you're still going to clear you know another 7k man so go get on something else or go buy a car upgrade that hot tub or you know uh send your ex-wife a nice present i don't know something but like there's no way at eighteen thousand dollars i would keep my thirteen thousand dollar game i'd be like all day here i will set it up for you sir white glove no problem um because what's going to happen is this game's going to peak it's it's very much everybody's looking at it right now it's the the the hot doll on the dance floor for great reason but man once we get on the other side of king kong and harry potter and dungeons and dragons and evil dead like there's going to be something else and i think we'll see these prices slide right on down here's the thing they only made a premium version of this game the le has the extra dressing on it right the extra cider ranch but you can get a premium you can put it in visit glass the shaker motor get yourself the lights they're 600 200 more for the the back box ones you know find somebody who can get access to a nice upgraded trans light and you're basically there right you're basically there other than the bragging rights of having this damn thing in your house i mean come on so practically that's where i'm at and i just got the notification like not an hour ago that i owe money to mad pinball because it sounds like my metallica is ready now early on when uh i was reached out by a customer that ordered a custom build of metallica i'm gonna make that thing freaking sing dude i've got the laser cut armor from cab custom i've got the art blazers are going in it man i got the trans light the whole thing's getting upgraded it's going to be fantastic dude oh dude i'm making the shooter rod, man. I can't wait to show off my plan for that. The best one I ever did. Best one I've ever did, for sure.
    15:42
    That's a great idea for it, too. Oh, my God, the Napster tie-in. It's going to be awesome, man. It's going to be so awesome. And the customer's going to be super happy with this. It's going out on location again. Bellingham, Washington, 1UP Lounge. Get ready, man, because you're going to have the rockinest build of Metallica ever. And it's going to be every bit as good as an LE. It's just not going to have that plaque on there, right? But you could get one so much cheaper right now, man. Sell that LE. Get the cheaper one. You still get the Metallica all day, dude. Come on, dude. That's what I would do. Otherwise, the game Super Special would stand out in your game room. Dude, if you love it, keep it and enjoy it man There no shame in that I think you be able to find one later Even if it probably not I don know if it will dip down past MSRP though I could see them realistically 14 is maybe where they will land Again, after Harry Potter, after Kong, after everything that's coming next. But, man, what a great game to launch this remastered trend from Stern. Let's stay on them for a little bit because I've heard Tron's next now. There's Whispers that are out there and the Blagosphere. People still use that term. uh, that this Tron remasters coming next. Uh, some people have strong opinions. Well, one guy from the app, a show floor who was selling glow in the dark mini golf of all things, had some very specific ideas of how that is a terrible idea. Nobody cares about Tron. And then dude talked to me for like, it seemed like 45 minutes straight or at least 45 minutes of content packed into 10 minutes. I was rescued by my friends. Thank God. But geez, man, was this guy hot on it saying that Tron would be the worst idea? I don't really think so. I, I think, uh, But, you know, okay. So Tron, game, I don't really care about. Plastic ramps, you know, the aesthetic's kind of cool. The girls on the Translight, yeah, I mean, it looks okay. It's Tron. It plays okay. Just nothing really ever, like, drew me into it, right? It's like I never really felt compelled to play Tron. You know, play a game, okay, I'm moving on to something else in the arcade. People still seem to really just love this game for some reason. I don't personally get it. But I can tell you this. if it was remastered, you know, and the shots were kind of, you know, tightened up a little bit more, and, you know, there was some new breaths of code in there, some new effects, you know? Like, you know, what if there's some, you know, better, you know, EL wires or something where everything's really glowing and kicking? Of course it would have expression lights. It would have a better sound package. It would have the LCD screen. I could see this something I may be able to actually warm up to, especially if it's tied in with, like, a Neutron movie, So it was like a new Tron aesthetic, but a fresh coat of varnish on this thing, a fresh coat of relevance. And then maybe I would warm up to it. So if you got a Tron and you don't, like, love it, maybe list it before next year when we see this. People are talking about remasters coming once a year now, so three cornerstones plus a remaster. I can dig it. I think they've got five years of remasters in the chamber, right? I think Ghostbusters would be next. I think there's two ways that I would approach that. I would redesign it so you could recredit a new designer and address that part of the business. As far as a flipper gap, there's two ways to fix that, one of which the easiest thing to do would be to drop a center post, right? And then, you know, if you hate the center post, you take it out. And if you dig the center post, you don't have to pay for that extra mod to go in there, that acrylic with the post that you could have between the flippers. And then that would fix the flipper gap issue. The other way to fix the flipper gap, and this is what I would like to see personally, and I think this would be a fantastic idea, I would like to see that flipper gap just go away completely and so go back to probably how the game should have been designed in the first place with a more traditional flipper gap distance. And then what you would have to do then is redesign all the shots and the geometry because that would change everything. And I say to that, sir, good. Why the heck not, right? Like, what does that involve? It involves opening up the CAD software, You know, put the flippers in their new location and then, you know, shift everything over by millimeters and half centimeters until everything kind of adjusts to the new flipper location, right? The shots will still be in the same place. The geometry on the flipper will be slightly different, but you'll learn that. And then how cool would it be to have Ghostbusters remastered, LCD screen, expression lights, back box lights, fresh coat of paint, you know, cool art on the sides and everything, no flipper gap, so it plays well and probably how it always should have played in the first place. And then, like, all the shots all line up with the new flippers, right? Why can't that be done? You know, adjust everything, throw it on the CNC, cut new play fields, art. You have to adjust the art a little bit. It would probably get a fresh new art package anyway. Metallica did. Tron will have one. So you just do a new art package and things. And here's like a beefier, maybe darker take, less slapstick, less Saturday morning cartoon, and more like true to the actual theme of the movie itself with the assets and everything. Throw some extra call-outs in there. Danny Aykroyd's still doing work. I mean, tell me this thing wouldn't be awesome if it comes out. You purists out there would say, no, don't mess with my flipper gap. It's my game. I love it. Wait till you see the new one. with a topper that's redesigned and not the same size as the minuscule Metallica topper, man. So I think that would be coming. Nostradamus has not weighed in on this just yet. He's out on sabbatical. But when he comes around here in another six to eight months, when we have a little bit more foresight, I think that may be something we could see. Let me know what you think. Ghostbusters remastered and redesigned. I think it would make an absolute cherry on a cake. And I think I would probably get one at that point. Ghostbusters is a game I appreciate it is fun I do like the subway ramp but like number one it's not worth the prices number two the flipper gap pisses me off but I've seen a friend of mine Ed Owens how you doing man blow the hell out of this game up and I was like okay I'm starting to get it so you bring me a remastered Ghostbusters that is something I'd be interested in that would be a $13,600 LE for sure even without the topper and everything man what do you think let me know You can always email me at DonSpinballPodcast at gmail.com, follow in the Discord, and also on the Facebook page. We're all over the place. So what else do I have to talk about?
    22:01
    Dungeons and Dragons by Brian Eddy with Dwight Sullivan on the code. Oh, my God. Not a sales juggernaut. What's going on with this game? I want to like it. I like Brian Eddy's last game. I like Venom. We'll talk about it on the show there. The idea of leveling up, fantastically awesome. Why has Tim Sexton seemed to abandon that idea for John Wick? I have no idea. I was just playing Wick again today, getting back into it. You know, I rotate through the lineup. You know, I move up, I move down slowly. You know, I was in a Pulp Fiction phase a couple weeks ago. I just went through a big spooky phase, and now I'm kind of getting back into John Wick and WrestleMania, man. It's all good. So game shoots well, and I'm collecting all these John Wick points. I'm at level 45 now or something. I get excited every time I level up. And then come to find out it means absolutely nothing. We can't leave it on that, man. There's got to be an in-game store. There's got to be some upgrades I could buy. As I increase in level, I should be able to have an optional longer ball save or something, man. Something. Let me cash in my wake points for an extra ball if I'm having a particularly good game that I don't want to just give away. Give me something. Something to do with these points. We saw in-game currency systems, which started actually on another Brian Eddy game. Mandalorian with the Beskar, going in and buying little attributes in the in-game store. Love that part of it. So we see it used to great effect in Jaws, where you can go in there and use your shark teeth to play these other optional games, different modes and everything. Fantastic. More of that, please. So if we can get that into Dungeons & Dragons, I think that would save the game. Who is this game for? This sounds like a game that would be for operators, for sure. I don't know if they do a price increase, maybe not, but to have the newest game out there and to build a loyal following of people that want to log in and increase their levels and build towards something and some kind of payoff, I can see it working well for them. For us home players that want a game that we can kind of lose ourselves into and play through 500 times and max out all our levels and things, I can see it working for those folks, of which I'm one of them. but you've got to go in there knowing that it's just going to be hard to move these things afterwards I can't see anything with this being a sales persistent juggernaut it's not Jaws it's not Kong it's going to be a game we'll see what happens in other news let turn a leaf now completely switch gears is there a different pinball company from Stern than Spooky as far as like just different scope, different scale, different vibe, different goals, right? You know what I mean? Stern Pinball, they release a game, they sell 1,500 of them overnight, and that's like a failure to them, you know? They need to have, like, 3,000 going plus persistent sales going on and then toppers and things releasing. Spooky Pinball turned around. I think if they would have sold 450 Evil Deads, they would have been high-fiving and meeting their sales goal and have the whole year of production basically lined up, right? And so then they go and sell clear through 500 day one. Fantastic. I've been watching the sales of the game. If you go to the website and go to put down a pre-order deposit, hopefully this doesn't tie up their order banks or anything. But if you try to order more than they have in supply, it comes back and tells you, sorry, only this many are available. You've got to be here or less. And so right now, that's at 215. I tried to order 250 Evil Deads about five minutes ago, and it told me the most that I could get is 215. Don't be greedy, Don. Don't be greedy. So I've been watching this, you know, every day, every other day. I pop in there just to kind of gauge where they're at. I was in on this game day one, 10 minutes after the order banks opened. I tore myself away from Avatar. I was in the middle of a four-player game, and I went ahead and ordered my Evil Dead. And by the time my ball was back up, it was already purchased. I love the game for the price I've already played it, I don't have any excuses I'm in on it, I can't wait I want this game tomorrow I want to load the shotgun over and over again, I want to hear all the Bruce callouts I want to play the updated code that I haven't got to play yet what I was playing was very preliminary but the shots were really fun I just want to get back into that world it's got everything I like about Texas Chainsaw Massacre and then just more the callouts are a little more funny It's a little more lighthearted, you know, where TCM is very kind of dark humor, right? Cannibals and such. Ash is very much like surreal horror. And I just want to get back into that world, man, of the evil dead. And then, you know, spooky and beyond, whatever they're coming out with next. So, you know, for them, right, you got Stern Pinball, giant factory, seven-foot silver stainless steel ball out front, you know, Huge corner curbside appeal. It's like a Costco-sized warehouse, man, just massive. And then you've got, on a hilltop in Wisconsin, Spooky Pinball, this plucky company that started from literally nothing and just out of passion and sheer determinants and just ignorance of the future risk, just blossomed into this sprawling compound now on a hilltop in Wisconsin. And now it's run by two guys that love what they do and listen to the fans of what they want and are trying their hardest to make that and also be transparent and also help support their games with service after purchase. It's kind of like everything we would want, man. No wonder these guys are garnering such a good following.
    27:31
    And they're not hard on the eyes either. I mean, that's obvious. Come on. Hashtag bug stash. So the game is fun.
    27:44
    I can't wait to play it. But as far as sales-wise, these guys don't have to sell 2,000 games just to get to, okay, I guess this was a success, we can break even now.
    27:53
    With whatever they've sold now, I'm sure they're happy with it. 215 left means they've sold 673 either directly through the website or through distributors. And so, dude, these guys are probably waking up every morning like, all right, it's time to now pull this off. Let's get these games into production. And so last I had heard, Evil Dead is supposed to enter production at the end of this month. And so then when January comes up after the break, like, it'll just be a continuation. Everybody will be trained up. They'll jump into them, you know, start kicking out five to ten games a week at first and then build up to the 40 a month or whatever that they end up doing. Can't wait, man. Can't wait. Hopefully I can keep pestering them. I'll even go down there and I'll build the topper my damn self if it helps spur things along. I really want to play this game. It seems to me that I'll be playing Metallica even sooner than that, for which I am, you know, dutifully excited about.
    28:47
    And yeah, man, I mean, that's pinball for where we're at right now. Having a fun time making over these games. I'm just about done with my two X-Men. The premium is sold. The LE still hasn't found a buyer yet. I've been slowly whispering around, but I haven't got aggressive with pin site or marketing or anything. X-Men LE, a beautiful game. Graphics are awesome. My game is shooting just fine. I did put the longer shooter rod on there that really helped. The fix should be coming up here in another two weeks for the back plastic, the anti-airball shooter lane protector plastic thing, and then the new metal ball guide about halfway up. Based on the one that I played at IAPA, bang on, it's shooting great. We fixed the shooter issue with this thing. Code continues to come out. The future is going to make a lot more sense. I'm excited for where X-Men is going. I'm not ready to give up on it yet. The market currently has softened on it. I think people got spooked about the shooter lane issues.
    29:43
    But still, it's a game where they only made 800 of the LEs, not 1,000 out there, so it's not as superfluous as some other games. I think it's just struggling a little bit out of the gate, and probably the timing issues of the game had something to do with that. But I can tell you now that I have these two games dialed in, they're playing fun. I'm appreciating everything that's going on. There's no shots that feel like they're unfair. There's no quick drains or anything. One of the other problems we're running into is this game does require a little bit of dialing in with special attention to the leveling, particularly the 6.5 degree tilt and the left and right especially to keep balls from just unfairly going straight down the middle. And, you know, there's games that are on location that just haven't been set up to those quite specifications. And people are playing it and they're not having the best experience that they can with this game. I'll tell you, it wasn't much. I'm not even perfect left to right, and they're both playing pretty phenomenally. I played some on location fresh out of the box, and you can tell that they really need dialed in. So if your location has opened this game up, put it on the floor, has not updated it, and has not leveled and serviced it properly, you're going to have a bad time with it. You're going to have a good time with it, just not as great as it would be. So the game is fun. It is one I purchased to make over and then sell. So as much as I like it, I've got to get it out of here for budgetary reasons. and so I haven't listed a price for it yet. Got to give something to the listeners here. I'm feeling flirtatious. I don't know if I really want to say a price. You know what? Email me with an offer because it will be sold ultimately at best offer. And if that best offer is $10.50 for a game that's got a powder-coated door, powder-coated speaker panel, all the mods I made for it, and a topper, like the whole thing comes complete, I mean, that's the best offer. That's what it's going to sell for. So I think I'll field offers between now and a couple weeks from now. Once I'm completely finished with the game, which should be here shortly, I'll go ahead and make an official pin side posting for it and all that business. But until then, you know, if I come by with a good offer and we shake on a deal, then you can get it probably at a steal, man. And we ship nationwide. It's no problem at all. Heck, if you're local, they can come and set it up for you. What else is coming with pinball? What's coming next? There should be a pinball show sometime soon. It's supposed to happen yesterday. I've been hitting refresh every 15 minutes like a nervous teenager. I need me some Zach Many. I'm sure it's coming. Join me over on the Discord. We talk there constantly, all day, man. Just try to put up with Dave Slaymaker, man. If you can hang with him, man, I don't think anybody else would get you. Water off the proverbial duck's back. Where's that outro music?
    32:21
    Dallas Pinball Podcast, gmail.com is where you can get at me. Pinball's fun, man. Let's continue to celebrate it. Check out the Discord. Check out the YouTube channel. I just put on some plexi arc blades on WWE WrestleMania from Custom Pinball. I did a little short video on that. It's shared also on the Facebook page, which you should be following. Let's get to 5,000. All right, guys. More to come this week, as we know it. Head to the after show later.